Toonami
Toonami (a portmanteau of the words "cartoon" and "tsunami") is one of Cartoon Network's brands, used initially for action-oriented programming blocks on Cartoon Network television channels worldwide, mostly showing American and Japanese cartoons, originating in the United States on March 17, 1997, ending on September 20, 2008, and returned on May 26, 2012 as part of Adult Swim after their April Fools stunt. In its original run, the block was famous for showcasing action anime that became widely popular with American audiences, including Dragon Ball Z. The Toonami brand name was subsequently used in the United Kingdom as the name of an action-oriented animation channel replacing a former Cartoon Network owned channel CNX, which had been a Toonami/live-action hybrid network. It has been hosted by two CGI hosts, Moltar, from the show Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and TOM, an original character who is currently on his 5th incarnation (6th counting TOM 3.5). Overview In September 2000, Toonami presented special interactive events known as Total Immersion Events or TIEs. These TIEs took place both on-air during Toonami and online at the official site, Toonami.com, and always occurred the week that the block's most popular series, Dragon Ball Z, returned for a new season. The very first TIE was The Intruder, which introduced TOM's companion, an AI matrix known as SARA, who played an integral part in the rebirth of TOM, upgraded from a short Bomberman-esque character (voiced by Sonny Strait, the adult voice of Krillin in the FUNimation dub) to a taller, stronger, darker, deeper-voiced incarnation temporarily dubbed as TOM 2.0 (voiced by Steven Blum, who previously voiced Adult Goku in the video game Dragon Ball GT: Final Bout), though it was the same TOM who still hosted the block. Dragon Ball Z first premiered on Toonmai on August 31, 1998, after airing for two seasons in syndication. The ratings on Toonami were much more successful for the series, resulting in the continuation of its English dub by FUNimation for Toonami's exclusive broadcast. New episodes were typically shown on weekday afternoons (specifically, 5 p.m. Eastern Time) Mondays through Fridays. The continued success of DBZ on Toonami led to them airing the original ''Dragon Ball'' series, which premiered on August 20, 2001. Dragon Ball GT began airing on Toonami on November 7, 2003 with a "Bonus Introduction" to the beginning of the series, and then moved on to episodes 17-64. FUNimation skipped the first 16 episodes of the series, and instead created an additional "flashback" episode (which is English-only) that retells the events of these first 16 episodes. After airing the final episode of DBGT, the previously-skipped episodes would air on Toonami as "The Lost Episodes". On Saturday September 20, 2008, Cartoon Network canceled the block and aired its final transmission. Employees who worked on the block moved to other parts of the channel. At the end of Toonami's final airing, the host, voiced by Steven Blum, ended the block with a final monologue simply reading: Anime was mostly handled by Adult Swim, and a new block "CN Real" replaced Toonami on Saturday nights afterward. Toonami Jetstream remained with the Toonami name until January 30, 2009. On May 16, 2012, on Adult Swim's twitter, they announced Toonami will return on May 26, 2012. The network issued a press release later that day confirming the block's revival as a Saturday late night anime block. Meanwhile differing and incomplete program lists have appeared on the Adult Swim website and in other TV programming schedules for this new block. New shows listed for the block include Casshern Sins and Deadman Wonderland. Toonami aired Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge on May 24, 2014, and announced the following day that they would air Dragon Ball Z Kai uncut starting in fall of 2014, later confirmed to be November 8, replacing Bleach at 12:00 AM. It was also later revealed that Kai would be airing in 4:3 instead of 16:9, a first for any show on the block (other shows made in 4:3 such as Cowboy Bebop are stretched to 16:9) using custom pillarboxes designed by the Toonami staff. Cooler's Revenge was later rerun on November 1, 2014 in the extra hour cause by Daylight Saving Time ending. ''Dragon Ball Z'' Promos and Intros Toonami was very famous for its promos, which showcased upcoming episodes. The Dragon Ball Z promos were particularly loved, and many have been uploaded to YouTube and other internet sites. The first promos were voiced by Moltar, who was the host at the time, but when TOM took over, most were voiced by Peter Cullen (who is most famous for the voice of Optimus Prime) and on occasion TOM himself. Earlier promos on the network for the first three DBZ movies had been voiced by Don LaFontaine, whose voice was heard on thousands of movie trailers up until his death in 2008. ''Dragon Ball Z'' Events DBZ President's Day Movie Marathon was a special marathon of three Dragon Ball Z movies that ran on February 21, 2000 (President's Day) from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM on Cartoon Network's Toonami block. The three movies shown were The Tree of Might, The World's Strongest, and Dead Zone. Dragon Ball Chronicles was a Toonami Event, in which Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z, and Dragon Ball GT took over Toonami for three weeks. Dragon Ball Chronicles lasted from 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM through March 29 - April 16, 2004, and was meant to celebrate Toonami's move from Weekday afternoons to Saturday nights, which started on April 17, 2004. Two Pokémon movies, as well as a Transformers: Energon marathon were also shown on the Fridays during Dragon Ball Chronicles, but they were not part of the event. Hosts Toonami had two notable hosts: Moltar and TOM. Moltar was the first and lesser-known, only hosting from March 17, 1997 until July 10, 1999. He was the animated director of a former original Cartoon Network series, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, who had sent an observer robot titled Clyde 49 to Earth to study the planet. TOM (Toonami Operations Module), was introduced under his v.1 state (voiced by Sonny Strait), on July 10, 1999. He was a small, wise-cracking robot who controlled the signal aboard the ship Absolution. During September of the same year, he would be joined by the AI program SARA, and custodial robots named Clydes (their name being an homage to Clyde 49). On September 18, 2000, Toonami aired The Intruder, its first Total Immersion Event (TIE), a special interactive event that took place both on-air and online. The Intruder lasted for eight episodes and culminated on September 27, 2000, with TOM and Sara successfully ejecting the titular Intruder from the Absolution, but at the cost of TOM and the Clydes being killed during the assault. Despite this, TOM's consciousness was transferred into an upgraded body, now voiced by Steven Blum, and was joined by newly upgraded Clydes prior to the final battle with the Intruder. TOM v.2 would be seen from 2000 until March 17, 2003. On April 17, 2004, SARA was given a humanoid hologram body, and the new generation of Clydes, now Clyde 53, were introduced. From March 17, 2003 to March 17, 2007, TOM v.3 was shown, with his origins being explained in the Endgame TIE and online comic. This body was similar to his previous state, however was more muscular and taller, with a smaller head. This version of TOM now introduced a new look to the block, and slight redesign to the Absolution ship. A polished design of this TOM is used for the Adult Swim revival. On the tenth anniversary of Toonami (March 17, 2007), the block was given a complete redesign, with TOM debuting a new organic look, SARA being replaced with new robots called Two. Flash, Spike, and the setting of the show was moved from space to a jungle area on a rocky planet. The origins of TOM v.4 are unknown, but the overhauled design received highly negative feedback from fans. On April 27, 2013, the Toonami design was rehauled again. The design featured a smaller Absolution, the return of SARA and other things. To promote the new design, the official Toonami tumblr was rebranded with the new look. Gallery Toonami logo.png|The Toonami logo from 2000-2003 TOONAMI logo 3.png|The Toonami logo from 2003-2005 Toonami2007logo.jpg|The Toonami logo from 2007 Toonami ANN.jpg|Toonami logo Toonamipic.png|TOM next to the logo used from 2005-2007, and on Adult Swim Toonami lockdown.jpg|The Toonami Lockdown logo Hqdefault Toonami.jpg|A Toonami bumper on April 1, 2012 Toonami promo2.png Toonami 5645349.jpg|TOM Toonami-Adult-Swim Ad.jpg|An advertisement for the revival of Toonami TOM5.jpg|An early image of TOM v.5. Sara.jpg|SARA v2.0 266px-SARA.png|SARA v3.0, SARA's new form as of April 28, 2013 See also *Channel Ten *UPN *The WB *YTV External links *Toonami on Adult Swim *Toonami at Archive Wayback *Toonami Wiki Category:Dragon Ball media Category:Dragon Ball Category:Dragon Ball Z Category:Dragon Ball GT Category:Broadcasters